


Nightfall over Washington

by asimpleraven



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Backstory, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Series, Sort Of, chronological order? what is that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 19:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20296627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asimpleraven/pseuds/asimpleraven
Summary: One busy evening for Margaret shortly after starting to work for Leo.





	Nightfall over Washington

**Author's Note:**

> So, chronologically this thing is a bit all over the place. I tried to use present tense so you can sort of follow the main story thread though. Hope you guys enjoy.

The tears on her cheeks are still wet, when the phone rings.

_“I’ve barely seen you this month.”_

_“Oh yeah? And who’s fault is this?”_

Kellys voice rings angry in her ears.

_“Mr McGarry needs me but once he’s found his footing…”_

_“Then what? You’ll suddenly have enough spare time to scratch together for your girlfriend? Jesus Margaret, I can’t wait around for your boss to get his fucking life together. I shouldn’t have to. And neither should you!”_

Margaret assembles the memories of their fight and files them away for later reassessment. Right now, it is not important. Right now, it is 10 pm on a Saturday evening and she is crying in her boss’s empty office, because she has nowhere else to go, but that’s not important. Right now, his phone is ringing.

“McGarrys Office.”

She tries to keep the tears out of her voice. It’s not her first breakup, no need to let this affect work.

“Margaret?”

Jenny McGarry obviously has other worries than her husband’s assistant’s private life or lack thereof.

“Is he in?”

She sounds hopeful. Margaret shakes her head, then she remembers that she’s on the phone.

“He left two hours ago.”

She did too, to spend an evening with her girlfriend. Half an evening. He’d told her earlier to go home and see her boyfriend, but he’d been in a pissy mood, so Margaret had decided to stay a few more hours and finish some work. She’d hoped he’d go straight home afterwards.

“But I’m on my way out, I can check a few places if you like.”

“If it’s no trouble to you. Thank you, Margaret.”

The line goes dead. She’s had a few latenight calls like this one since she’s started working for Leo McGarry and usually, they are false alarms. Usually, he just needs some time alone, away from the office or home and even though Margaret can’t understand why he wouldn’t want to see his loved ones on the end of a long day, she doesn’t think it’s dangerous. She just never knows how to talk to Jenny about her husband, or if it is even her place to reassure her. Margaret wipes the last traces of tears from her face and gets her coat.

When Margaret first came to Washington, it was purely to spite her father. Things had obviously been going way to well between them for the last few years so of course she had to just come right out and tell him that maybe she liked girls as much as boys and that maybe she had found the right girl to move in with. At that point she had also let it slip that she would prefer organizing other people’s lives, rather than working her way up in some big office, even though her college degrees would have made it at least possible for her. After all she had spent long enough taking care of her and her brothers lives, after her mother had left. Her father had told her that she had been born for far greater things than carrying some Washington bigshot’s files around for them. At least that’s what she had decided to hear, though his words had been far harsher. She felt bad, the second the door closed behind her, but it was no longer her job, to reach out to him. He was the one who had forced her to grow up at ten, he shouldn’t be mad at her for pursuing a career at twenty. By the time Kelly picked her up from the airport she had already forgotten that she had left him her phone number, just in case he calmed down and wanted to apologize.

It took two weeks for Margaret to meet Leo McGarry in person after she had started working for him. Her future boss was gone for a month on what his former assistant had described as extended leave. Karen hadn’t gone into a lot of detail when offering Margaret to recommend her as her successor. Margaret had been in town for a year at this point and fresh out of a job and considered the elderly lady a friend about to help her out before going into retirement. She was eager to learn, asking away about filing systems and new computer programs and scheduling when she should have been asking what kind of “family emergency” as it was filed under in his calendar would take him away from the office for a whole month, or why there was half a bottle of Jack Daniels sitting in the back corner of one of his filing cabinets, almost as if someone had tried to hide it there, or why it suddenly disappeared after she mentioned it to Karen. It was only a day before she left the job that Karen came up to her and discreetly handed her a small notebook with several addresses and phone numbers scribbled in and told her about a place called Sierra Tucson and meetings and sponsors and alcohol and valium. She had the decency to look uncomfortable but reassured Margaret that it wouldn’t be that hard actually and that the worst had already passed.

On her way out of the office she calls his cellphone. Of course, he’s not answering, but she tells herself that trying won’t hurt, that she’s not just using the opportunity to check if she has any missed calls herself, that she’s not just hoping that Kelly has tried to reach out by now. She also won’t admit to herself that she just remembered, that her father hasn’t called her, since she moved out. That’s not important now after all.

“No Mal, please don’t hang up.” His voice was pleading, Margaret could hear it through the door gap.

“I got your number from your mom. If you would listen for a second - …“ Margaret heard a sigh followed a second later by the sound of a phone being put back on the cradle. She waited three more seconds, before she stepped in the office to put down the files some temp had left at her desk six minutes ago.

“Thank you, Margaret.” He was looking at her but for a millisecond his eyes flashed to the filing cabinet they had cleaned out two weeks ago. Then he leaned forward and pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing fully well that she’d seen it.

“Margaret”

“Yes Mr McGarry?”

He took a breath and looked at her tiredly.

“Leo.” She corrected herself. Apparently, Washington was a city on first name basis. At least if your name happened to be Leo McGarry.

“Didn’t you have a date or something?”

Margaret looked up at the clock and realized that yes, she had indeed been planning to get out in the next hour so she’d still have thirty to forty minutes to shower, fifteen to pick out her outfit and another five to ten minutes, depending on traffic, to get to the restaurant. She just wondered how her boss would know these things.

“Yeah, I heard you on the phone before, making reservations and stuff. The Monocle’s a nice choice, a bit above your paygrade I guess but your man will like it... Sorry, I didn’t mean to snoop.”

Somehow, he didn’t look that guilty and Margaret realized that he knew she had overheard the conversation with his daughter, or lack thereof. She just nodded about to leave the office but turning to close the door her eyes fell on his slumped form.

“Actually, I think there are a few more things I will finish up before I leave. Kel… My Partner will understand.”

She was met with a scowl, but she didn’t wait around for him to protest and went to sharpen her pencils instead. She wouldn’t be needing them but while she was her she might as well just take care of them too.

“I don’t need a babysitter.”

It was the first thing Mr McGarry told her, when he showed up on his first day to work again, one hour early circling her desk, not even stopping to take off his coat.

“Martha, right?”

She got up to follow him into his office.

“Margaret.”

“Whatever. Karen said she’s briefed you and all.”

He had finally stopped for a second to put his coat on the clothes rack, which gave Margaret time to study her new boss’s appearance. She wondered if he had fallen off the plane and decided to go straight to work.

“Showed you around, taught you the filing system.” He pulled open the filing cabinet and nodded with a reassured look. “Thrown out my stuff, apparently.”

He sat down behind his desk looking at his new assistant for the first time since he’d rushed into his office.

“Between my wife and my friends, I’ve got enough people watching out for me, so I don’t need a babysitter, is all I’m saying. So we better get to work now, huh?“

And that was that. At least according to him. It didn’t stop her from worrying sometimes though.

It’s the last bar Margaret is checking out and she is sure, this one must be the right one, because it’s always the last one and because she doesn’t want to think about what will happen if she doesn’t find him. She tells herself that she could still check the mall after that. Usually that’s the first place she searched on the few occasions when his wife got worried enough to call her and usually, she had found him somewhere at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and one time at the Andrew Jackson Statue. Last time Leo had told her his favorite story about Jackson involving a giant amount of cheese and the White House.

“You do know you don’t have to jump every time my wife gets worried, right?” He asked her while walking her back to the metro station.

She didn’t answer, still a bit embarrassed by the fact that she didn’t trust him over his wife, even though so far, she had only ever spoken to her on the phone.

“I mean seriously, how old are you? Twenty? Go out, enjoy the nightlife. I’m not a baby you need to watch out for.”

He sounded amused, but also frustrated.

“Jenny was scared, Leo.” She tried to justify herself

He sighed, clearly frustrated now.

“Yeah, I’ll make it up to her. You know anything about what dresses are trending right now, Margaret?”

“Are you even old enough to be in here?”

She wants to tell off whatever smug jerk is talking to her when she realizes it’s Leo. He’s sitting in a booth in a corner smelling of smoke, a glass full of clear liquid in front of him.

“Looking for my idiot boss, I guess. His wife is probably hysteric by now.”

A guilty look flashes across his face and she almost regrets saying it. Then she remembers that he’s the one who decided to run off to a bar in the middle of the night. She sits down next to him, eyeing the drink. He holds it out to her.

“It’s water.”

Then he takes a long drag from a cigarette she didn’t realize he was smoking. They sit in silence for a while. Him smoking, her contemplating whether she’s strong enough to drag him to the door or if she should step out and call André, the guy who helped her and Kelly move three months ago and who could probably throw her boss over his shoulder and walk out.

“You want me to beat him up?”

Margaret looks at him confused. He waves his hand in front of his eyes.

“Whoever made you cry like that. I’m guessing your date didn’t go well.”

“I didn’t go.”

“I know, I guess I was just hoping this wasn’t my fault too.”

He takes another drag.

“I guess I just wanted to try something new, you know? See what this place feels like without the toxics in my system. I was just enjoying the cozy atmosphere.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Nah, I wasn’t.”

“I mean honestly, the music here is not the least bit melodic and the furnishing mashes four different styles. This place can’t decide whether it wants to be a sports bar, one of these expensive things you find on the roof of a five star hotel or a classic Irish pub.”

He gives her a chuckle and Margaret decides that if her rambling on about how there are three different sized bar stools will lift his spirits, she will gladly do so.

“My daughter hates me.”

His tone is somber. It’s not a complaint, just a realization full of regret and Margaret doesn’t know how to respond to that.

“I pretty much fucked up her whole life.”

He pauses.

“I guess at least she learned to do well on her own. Got herself through school without my support. And she’s started teaching this year. Mal’s always been brilliant with kids… she’s brilliant in general.”

“Well, looks to me like you didn’t fuck up that much then.”

He looks like he wants to argue, but Margaret is tired of this sad, self-pitying version of her boss. She’s tired in general, because it’s the middle of the night and she is going through an exhausting breakup and she can’t help but wish to think that maybe, just maybe, her father is out there right now talking about her in a similar fashion to one of his buddies, or even just one of his one-night-stands.

“Leo, your daughter is a grown woman now and to me it sounds like she’s fine. I don’t think they would let people who are half a bad day away from a mental breakdown anywhere near kids.”

Her voice isn’t harsh, but Leo looks, like someone just slapped him.

“I still put her through a lot.” He tries weakly.

“You’re making amends, aren’t you? You’ve reached out to her. I’m no expert in this but I’d say leave her some time to process things and try again.”

He nods, not completely convinced Margaret thinks, and glances at his watch.

“Right. I guess there are some phone calls I need to make, better do that outside.”

“…You don’t have to stay up Jenny. Love you too, Honey.”

Somewhere behind her in the parking lot, Leo is calling the next number on his list, probably to apologize personally to whoever had called him in the last three hours.

Margaret regrets not taking her coat with her. When she left Kellies apartment, she had still been in a daze. The realization dawns on her that she will have to go back to get the rest of her stuff at some point. Everything in their... in Kellies Apartment is so nicely arranged, she feels like removing anything would finalize this disruption of their peace.

“Hey Jack, yeah it’s me…”

When she first came to Washington, she was still furious about her fathers behavior. Kelly had been so patient with her, had held her when she cried and handed her some of the cheaper cups in her cupboard when she felt like throwing something.

“…do you know if there are any meetings around this time?”

Kelly had also helped her pick out some outfits for her first job interviews. _“You don’t want to look like you’re trying to sleep your way up. Trust me.” _Sure, now she's dressing like she is forty instead of twenty-one, but at least all of her bosses so far have taken her serious.

“…Nah, don’t stress yourself. I got Margaret here with me. I think she’ll break my legs before she lets me enter another bar tonight.”

She turns around to see him give her half a smirk before going back to kicking some thrash around and Margret goes back to contemplating how her girlfriend has been there for her for a whole year and how she told her she was selfish for not accepting her workaholic tendencies and compassionless for not realizing that her boss was fighting his own battles too and how it was probably her who had fucked up the most this evening.

“Ok so my sponsor’s picking me up in about half an hour, but if you want to go home and clear up things with your boyfriend now, I won’t blame you.”

She wants to tell him that this can’t be fixed that easily, that this relationship was the first thing that had felt real to her and that she had destroyed it, but the lump in her throat is preventing her from speaking. Margaret can feel tears well up in her eyes again and if she knows one thing for sure it is that she doesn’t want to cry in front of her boss of all people. Apparently, he isn’t too fond of the idea of seeing his assistant cry either because he pulls her in to a hug instead and lets her sob into his suit. For the moment she doesn’t mind that he smells like an ashtray. They must be a weird picture to anyone who comes across them, standing like this in the middle of an empty parking lot in the middle of the night.

“You know a bit about bar decoration?” He tries rather awkwardly.

“My aunt studied furniture design.”

“You know, fights happen in relationships, kid.”

Of course, she knows this. She just hasn’t thought about it this evening. There had been more important issues on her schedule, after all.

“Apologize to him, tell him your boss is a jerk, I don’t know. Talk about this, I guess. And don’t just let him get away with everything, won’t do either of you any good.”

A car pulls up in the empty parking lot and Leo goes to greet the driver. Margaret pulls out her phone.

“Maggie?”

Kelly picks up on the first ring which tells her that she probably hasn’t been to bed yet either.

“God, I’m so sorry. I said some stupid things tonight”

“No, I’m sorry Kelly. I was horrible to you.”

She can hear her girlfriend chuckle on the other end of the line and those damn tears wellup again.

“You obviously never met my ex. I’m sorry for telling you to get lost.”

This feels almost normal, but Margaret knows, this argument will come up again, if they don’t talk now.

“Yeah, I was thinking about coming home. Maybe we should talk about us?”

“Gosh, and it’s only one in the morning. You’re lucky I wasn’t planning on sleeping anyway. I’ll make some coffee.”

The familiar sarcasm makes her smile.

“Love you Maggie.”

“Love you too, Kelly.”

She hangs up and takes a deep breath. All of a sudden, her chest feels a lot lighter. Looking back, she feels stupid for thinking this would be hard.

“Do you want to ride with us?”

Margaret almost jumps, because she completely forgot, Leo was still there. She can feel herself blush a bit because she is unsure how much of the conversation he overheard.

“I think I’ll get a taxi. It’s not that far. Have a good night Leo”

He nods.

“Ok then, you too.”

Before entering the car, he turns around.

“Listen, if she gives you a hard time tell her your jerk of a boss knows one of the chefs who works at the Monocle and that he could try and get you two a discount.”

Margaret can’t help but grin.

“So, you want to buy my girlfriends affection for me?”

He shrugs.

“Usually works with Jenny.”

Still grinning she shakes her head.

“Have a good night, Leo.”

“You too. See you on Monday.”


End file.
